Short Story Cabin 10, By Richard Bullmer - 1681 Words

For thousands of years, humans have believed in the principles of karma—that one’s future is based on their thoughts and actions of the present. Known in literature as poetic justice, it is the notion that each character gets the end they deserve. Readers appreciate seeing virtue rewarded and crime punished, as it affirms their own will to do good, and maintains that there is some great equalizing force that will reward them for their suffering. The works chosen for the Independent Study Unit are no exception—every character receives karmic consequences that are direct reflections of their actions. In Swimming Lessons, Gil Coleman, who flitted from woman to woman without a care for his wife, spends a decade heart-broken and alone. Ingrid†¦show more content†¦He is on vacation with his wife, yet he goes to see another woman; an action that illustrates Gil as a vile, disloyal adulterer who does not value Ingrid. Even when she is suffering for him, for exam ple, going through this sickness to give him the children that he so badly desires, he is not there for her and not supportive. Gil’s actions in the earlier stages of his life very clearly indicate how neglectful and disloyal he is to Ingrid. It is not just Gil’s affairs that make Ingrid feel cast aside. Often, Gil will be missing for long periods of time on business trips trying to sell his books, or simply out of their shared bed at night writing. She writes, â€Å"there was one morning when you were gone from the bed [...] I opened one of the windows in the bedroom and heard the tapping of your typewriter, dulled and distant, and considered whether I might have misidentified my enemy—it wasn’t other women, or Jonathan, but your writing.† (106) Ingrid has many factors to be concerned about if she wants to be the main subject of Gil’s affections. There are the other women he is known to seduce, his alcoholism, and his friend Jonathan. But, most time-consuming of all is his unsuccessful writing career. He is known to Ingrid to fall asleep at his typewriter, and to spend days on end alone—locked in his